This invention is in the field of random distribution devices and machines, and in specific embodiments the invention relates to gaming devices wherein randomness of distribution of an entire population of articles or game pieces is desirable.
Particularly in the gaming industry, a great number of random sampling or random motion devices have been known. These include slot machines, roulette wheels, wheels of fortune and other such devices.
U.S. Pats. Nos. 3,095,655, 3,304,091, 3,423,872, 3,534,964, 4,368,887, 4,385,763, 4,508,346, 4,772,024, 4,796,890, 4,807,881, 4,822,048 and 4,824,113 all show various types of games or gaming devices involving skill or chance in moving small balls or similar items into various positions. A number of these patents show random selection devices which select a small group of marked balls from a larger group, in order to produce a random result. See, for example, Guill U.S. Pat. No. 3,534,964, Gamble U.S. Pat. No. 4,368,887 and Salvucci U.S. Pat. No. 4,508,346. Of these, the Guill patent shows a device with an upper plenum or chamber having a series of marbles with different colors or markings, with a plurality of vertical tubes below the plenum for receiving stacks of the marbles, apparently in random fashion. The marbles fall into the vertical tubes by gravity with fewer than all of the marbles permitted to enter the tubes. Games may be played with the winner determined by the pattern of marble colors arranged in the tubes.
The Gamble patent is similar, adapted to select a small set of balls randomly from a larger population of balls.
The Salvucci patent shows a somewhat different device in which a series of balls in a holding area are propelled upwardly by a stream of air from a motor driven blower. The balls are propelled into an upper tubular column where their order of arrangement is random. In most embodiments, Salvucci discloses capturing less than all of the available balls in the column; however, in one embodiment he discloses capturing a full complement of the balls randomly in the tubular column.
None of these previous devices was capable of randomly mixing, ordering and distributing all of a plurality of spherical game pieces into a two dimensional matrix, in an efficient, aesthetically pleasing and automated manner as in the present invention described below.